ReignWulin:BeggarSect

History

• Lu Youjiao gave a sigh. "The two of you aren't outsiders," he said, "so you may have already heard Chief Hong mention the internal division of our Gang into two groups: the 'Clean Clothes' and 'Dirty Clothes' factions." "Haven't heard teacher talk of it," said Guo Jing and Huang Rong together. "The division within the Gang is fundamentally not a good thing," said Lu Youjiao. "Chief Hong is extremely unhappy about it. His Eminence has expended an enormous amount of thought and effort, but all along hasn't been able to get these two factions to join together as one. Now, under Chief Hong, the Beggar Gang has four elders in all..."
• The four beggars were singing the ‘Lotus Falling’ begging tune, each one holding a bowl in their right hand and a stick in their left. There were four coarse pockets on their shoulders. Lu Wushuang once heard her apprentice sister say that the Beggar Clan members use the coarse pockets to differentiate between rank within the clan, fourth band members will have four pockets, these beggars were fourth band members. She remembered how she fought beggars Han and Chen yesterday at Wolf Valley, they had five pockets; it seems they were a level higher than these people in front of her.
• The Beggar Clan is a righteous and chivalrous clan; they have always helped the weak against the strong and aided those who were in danger. They had only decided to go after Lu Wushuang because she hurt a member of their clan. When they saw Yang Guo falling onto the ground and didn’t seem to know ANY martial arts they all felt apologetic, one of the beggars stretched out a hand to pull him up and said, “Sorry.”
• He took out some change and handed it out. The three beggars thanked him according to the clan’s rules.
• The Beggar Clan has a rule, one must not hit out at someone who doesn’t know martial arts. The beggar didn’t know that this groom was so useless, just a light push and he fell onto the ground. If he was seriously hurt he would be punished within the clan and the other two would not be able to escape punishment as well.
• The two beggars had a high status in the world of Wulin, when they heard Hong Lingbo question them like this they became angry but the Beggar Clan had strict rules, the members mustn’t get into feuds with others as they pleased so the two just replied, “No!”
• Quanzhen sect and the Beggar Clan have always been good friends.
• Yelu Qi knew that the Beggar Clan was a powerful force up here in the north.
• If there wasn’t an urgent matter, members of the clan would not travel by horseback.
• The members of the Beggar Clan are all people from poor environments, they have always helped those in need and distress; they would never look down on other poor people.
• One of the rules of the Beggar Clan is when a Beggar Clan member arrives to celebrate a ceremony, they’ll first need to get chicken, fish, beef and lamb and leave it until it starts to rot, and gets like a soup of spoiled meat. The meaning was that they shouldn’t forget their origins; but when treating guests, proper wine and dishes are bought out.
• Hou Dou displayed the gem green jade bamboo stick; he was proud of himself and said, “The Beggar Clan’s treasure is the Dog Beating Stick, so it’s nothing more than this.”
• Consisting of almost a million beggars all over the Central Plains, it was once headed by Hong Qi Gong who was succeeded by Huang Rong. The sect was righteous and ever-willing to help the needy. The sect had good diplomatic relations with Shaolin Temple.
• This was in accordance to the Beggar Clan rules and regulations, no matter how big or how small a meeting was, beggars could not lose their identity by sitting on chairs.
• There are originally four Elders of the Beggar Clan, namely Elder Lu, Elder Jian, Elder Liang and Elder Peng.
• "This stick and wine bottle has been the trademark of the beggar sect leader, ever since a few hundred years ago, even before the start of the Tang dynasty, It's like the golden seal of the emperor's."
• Hong Qigong was telling Guo Jing the ins and outs of the Beggar Clan; that although they begged for a living, actually every member had the responsibility to uphold justice, to help those in distress, to follow their predecessors' good deeds, not the bad ones. These facts were mostly hidden from the public eyes.
• Hong Qigong said, "Exactly, I am the 18th generation Leader of the Beggars' Clan, and you are hence the 19th Leader. Now let's thank our ancestors."
• "Although you are now the Clan Leader, you don't have to change your personality; if you want to be playful and mischevious, go ahead and be, we are all beggars, we have no restrictions and we do as we please. If this won't do and that won't do, we might as well be judges and ministers."
• "Helping others in distress is one of our Beggar Clan's rules," Hong Qigong said.
• There was a custom in the Beggars Clan that seeing the Dog Beating Stick was the same as seeing the Clan Leader himself.
• The Beggar Clan was the largest organization in the world.
• Other than wearing clothes full of patches, the Clean Clothes members led an ordinary life just like common people. These people were originally Jianghu's warriors who either admired the Beggar Clan's chivalrous deeds that they joined the Clan, or was in good term with a Beggar Clan disciple; they were by no means beggars. The Dirty Clothes Faction members actually begged for a living; they observed a strict commandment: they could not use money to buy things, they must not eat on the same table with outsiders, they must not fight with people who did not know martial art.
• Moreover, although the Clean Clothes Faction had three out of four elders, the Dirty Clothes Faction disciples held the majority within the Beggar Clan.

Disciplines

Dog Beating Stick

These techniques are all used with Coordination + Staff. None of them may be combined with each other.

• Dog's Back Slant Beating (1 point): You can squish the Width of one of your sets in order to increase its Height. You cannot increase the Height above 8 using this technique.
• Poke Back Dog Butt (2 points): This technique augments the Trip maneuver. If successful, the result of the trip attempt is as if the Width of the success had been one higher.
• Stirring Rash Dog (3 points): This technique augments the Feint maneuver. When used against named opponents, it allows you to apply the effects of the Feint to a number of opponents equal to the Width of your success. When used against Unworthy Opponents, it causes the group to lose a number of dice off their sets equal to the Width of the success.
• No Mercy Stick Poke (4 points): This strike deals an additional 2 points of Shock damage and causes the target to lose one die off of every set rolled for that round.
• No Dogs Under Heaven (5 points): This strike simultaneously applies to every target within reach of your staff. If used against a group of Unworthy Opponents, on a successful hit it removes a number of them equal to the Height of the attack success.
• Stick Beats Two Dogs
• Hitting the Dog's Back From The Side
• Snatching the Stick From the Dog's Mouth
• The rules of the clan states that the formulae to the technique must be passed on down orally and must not be written down.
• The bamboo stick was strong and sturdy, the length and weight was perfect; using the Dog Beating Stick to perform the “Dog Beating Stick Technique” can only result in an increase of power.
• Huang Rong continued, “When the dog leaps over the wall how can it be beaten? Quickly hit its backside and chop its tail.” This stick technique had been passed from generation to generation in the Beggar Clan. Beggars aren’t the most elegant and cultured, the words of course would be vulgar.
• “To Push the Dog to Lower its Head”
• Li Mochou chased joyfully, she felt that with the exception of ‘Da gau bang fa’, her other skills were superior to that of Mrs. Guo.
• Hong Qigong wield a bamboo stick which he carried anywhere he went, as a token of authority of his position as the Beggar Clan Leader. The bamboo was pliable but hard to break. Compared to a sword it was about one foot longer. His skill in external martial art was superb; he was able to impart an incredible strength to the flexible weapon in his hands, increasing its might tremendously.
• "Now that you're the head of all the beggars, you'll have to act like one. With your rich dress and your rich girl's attitude, the dog would be only too pleased to listen to you, why would you need to hit it? But if us beggars run into such dogs the it's a different story. The old saying is: the poor not armed with rods get bullied by dogs. You have never been poor, you don't know what it's like to be one." Huang Rong thought, "What dog could be so fierce?" Then she realised and shouted, "Ah, yeah, bad guys are dogs too!"
• "The 36 moves of the [Dog Beating Skill] was created by our Ancestors and can only be passed down from one Clan Leader to the next without letting anyone else know about the skill. Our Clan's 3rd Leader far surpassed future Leaders and so he greatly improved this skill. After hundreds of years, when our Clan faces any strong opposition, our Leader would personally come forward and use this skill to defeat our enemies."
• It was deep green and clear like crystal, truly an unusual object; he knew it was an extraordinary stick, so he walked over and picked it up.
• Huang Rong was using the 'ao kou duo zhang' [snatching stick from a mastiff (dog)'s mouth] from the Dog Beating Stick Technique Hong Qigong had passed on to her. It was specifically created to take back the stick if it ever fell into an enemy with high martial art skill.
• From the side her bamboo stick intercepted the iron staff before it reached Guo Jing’s head with the ‘e gou lan lu’ [cutting off a vicious dog’s path] stance. As it hit the iron staff, the bamboo stick shook and coiled around the staff, pushing it slanting sideways. This Dog Beating Stick Technique was truly marvelous; although her strength was inferior, by borrowing the staff’s strength she managed to re-orient its path.

Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms

• Hidden Dragon Has No Use: "The palm skill that Guo Jing used had been practiced and refined, and has now reached its peak; the force he generated was extremely strong, and he had more powerful moves hidden. Each one of them used all their strength to block this fierce attack but they didn’t expect a strong force pulling them forward. The seven could not stand still, and all of them fell onto the ground; though they got up straight away, each one of them had dirt on their face, and was slightly embarrassed."
• Overcoming the Dragon With Regret: "When he first unleashed it, it looked light and fragile but when it meets an obstruction, it will be able to unleash its force in thirteen levels, each level stronger than the last one. It will move the unyielding, there is no force it can’t overcome."
• "Guo Jing ignored them, two “fu” sounds were heard, as two palms came out. The two were not near Guo Jing’s body, but they were hit by the palm’s power and couldn’t stand still. Two sounds were heard as the men crashed against the wall, blood came out of their mouths."
• Seeing the Dragon in the Field
• The Forbidden Submerged Dragon: However, the power of this palm of Guo Jing’s came from the area around the palm and not in the palm itself. Though the palm was going for Nimoxing’s chest, there was no kind of force going towards it and he blocked thin air. By the time he knew something was wrong, his abdomen and his face had felt the power of the palm.
• Flying Dragon in the Sky: In this urgent situation there was no time to think carefully, he used a stance of “Flying Dragon in the Sky”, his whole body leapt into the air, and attacked Jinlun Fawang’s head.
• Hong Qi Gong passed the second stance of the '18 subduing dragon palms", called the 'Flying dragon in the sky' to Guo Jing. The stance falls in mid air and is a powerful one, which attacks one below from high above.
• He turned his right arm around and used a stance of “Divine Dragon Sweeping its Tail”, he immediately grabbed Yin Kexi’s golden whip.
• The stance came from the trigram, 'to thread on' which is part of the Yi Jing. The master who created the 18 subduing dragon palms actually named the stance "threading on the tiger's tail". It was a more powerful description as compared to "attacking the tiger from behind" because if one steps on the tiger's tail, it will no doubt turn around and attack furiously. However, the later generation felt that this description in the Yi Jing was too soft and not pleasing to the tongue. Thus, they changed it to "the divine dragon swings its tail".
• Guo Jing was using the great Wulin skill the “Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms”. Fawang and the others kept tight on him thinking that even if his internal energy was more profound, he would not be able to keep up so powerful a palm technique for much longer.
• Proud Dragon Repents: With that, he stooped his left leg slightly and bent his right arm inwards. His right palm moved in a circle and, with a huff, he stretched his arm and pushed it outwards so that it hit the trunk of a pine tree. That instant the contact was made, the pine tree snapped with a 'ke cha'. Guo Jing was astounded. Never did he think that such a simple push could exert such great power. Qi-Gong explained, "Trees are inanimate. If it was a real human, he would of course retreat and dodge. The difficulty of this stance lies in forcing the enemy into a position where retreat is impossible, where he cannot possibly dodge. 'The proud dragon repents, but not for long'. Therefore, with projection must come collection. If you project 10 degrees of your power, be sure to have 20 degrees remaining within your body. The day that you grasp the essence of 'repent', you will have mastered 30% of this stance. Just like fine and mature wine, it does not sting at first taste but the aftertaste is extremely overwhelming, thus demonstrating the meaning of 'repent'."
• The top disciple felt the powerful force approach, so he changed his attack and grabbed at Guo Jing's arm, hoping that would stop the palm. Instead, he lost consciousness as his arm broke and his body was thrown six to seven feet away.
• The '18 subduing dragon palms' was Hong Qi Gong's specialty. Half of it was due to his teacher's guidance and the other half was his own experimental effort. Although the number of stunts were limited, each stunt carried with it immense force.
• Guo Jing was using the 'long zhan yu ye' [Dragon Fight out of the Field], the most mysterious stance of the '18 Dragon-Subduing Palms'; where both left and right arms could be either solid or void without any specific rule. Qiu Qianren saw Guo Jing's left arm moved while his right arm loose; but suddenly the right arm thrust forward and hit Qiu Qianren on the right shoulder, followed by a punch on his chest. Qiu Qianren's body flew out of the hall through the main entrance like a kite with broken string!
• His whole body felt weak. In that critical moment he managed to bend his two fingers; and with his hand forming a half-palm-half-fist he hit her chest. That was the 'qian long wu yong' [hidden dragon is useless (?)]. It was supposed to be followed by his left hook – a brilliant stance difficult to fend off; but since his left wrist was in the enemy's hand; he could only launch a half stance.
• The secret of '18 Dragon-Subduing Palms' lies in the exact timing of energy exertion. The moves themselves were quite simple.
• Wild Geese Rise From The Shore
• exhausted battling dragon
• As soon as his right hand was within a foot from Huang Rong’s body, Guo Jing’s left palm made a circle, his right palm went straight forward, in the ‘jian long zai tian’ [Seeing Dragon in the Field] posture, blocking in front of Huang Rong’s body. This move was a purely defensive in nature, like a strong invisible wall was suddenly appeared in between Huang Rong and the fisherman.
• In the battle between experts, using weapon or being barehanded did not make too much difference. Hong Qigong used his ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ attacking ferociously; the gust of wind could be felt a ‘zhang’ [10 feet/3 meters] away. Even with the iron flute in his hand, how could Guo Jing get close to him?

Fists of the Free

These techniques are all used with Coordination + Unarmed Strike. They do not combine with each other.

• No Cares Fist (1 point): Your highest Width set is timed to coincide simultaneously with the first action of the round (if you were not already first). However, if successful the strike only does a single point of Shock in damage.
• Exuberant Fists (2 points): You may make as many unarmed strikes as you wish without suffering a multiple action penalty, but each successful strike only does a single point of Shock damage, regardless of Width.
• Swiftness of the Free (3 points): As No Cares Fist, except the strike does damage as normal.
• He leapt up immediately and traversed left and right, sleeves fluttering in the breeze; his movements were nimble and full of grace. Huang Rong watched and memorized in silence. By the time Qi-Gong had finished displaying the entire set of stances, she had already mastered half of it.
• "This Carefree Drifter's Fist is a technique I picked up in my youth, and I just fished it out just to suit her original style of martial arts. It is completely incompatible with the style of martial arts I use now, so I haven't used it once in over 10 years." Qi-Gong was obviously hinting that the Carefree Drifter's Fist was far more inferior to the 18 Dragon Subduing Palms.
• Its two central moves, "Alms Bowl at the Door" and "Seeing a Benefactor".
• "Traveling the Seas Without Worry."
• "Begging for Rice"

Those Eagles

• On the top of the cliff, a couple of white eagles nested. White feathers were very rare amongst eagles, and these eagles were not only completely white but also of exceptional size. The Ancients used to say that they had never seen their equal, and considered those eagles ‘Divine’ birds. Some women even avowed them in a cult.
• Hua Zheng with the two white eagles, which had grown a lot. Standing next to her, they were nearly as tall as her.
• He recognized those were his two condors, which together Huazheng and he raised back in Mongolia. Those two birds also recognized their master amidst the dark night, so they uttered a loud cry and came down on Guo Jing's shoulder.

People

Hong Qigong

• When Yang Guo examined him, he was a white haired and bearded old man; the clothes on him were old and torn. It appeared that he was a beggar. Although it was dark, the white snow reflected off him, there was a red glow to his face, yet he looked graceful.
• This person was the “Nine-Fingered Wondrous Beggar”, Hong Qigong. After he passed on the position of the Chief of the Beggar Clan to Huang Rong, he traveled alone, savoring the world’s finest foods.
• Whenever he saw injustice, he would secretly help; he killed evil doers and punished traitors with his abilities. No one knew where he was or where he went. Sometimes he would listen in on some Beggar Clan members talking; he knew that under the orders of Huang Rong and Lu Youjiao, the Beggar Clan was calm. The internal fight between the ‘dirty’ clothed and ‘clean’ clothed factions was subsiding; so had the outside force of the Jin and the Iron Palm Sect.
• Hong Qigong melted another two lumps of snow and cleaned the flesh of the centipede so there would be no traces of poison, and then he took out seven or eight small and large boxes from his back pack. In the boxes were ingredients such as oil, salt, jams, vinegar and the like. He placed some oil in the pan and fried the centipedes, immediately an appetizing scent flowed into the nose. Yang Guo saw that he was drooling, revealing his glutton side, he couldn’t stop himself from being startled and laughed at the same time.
• Guo Jing and Huang Rong had recited a small portion of the manual to Hong Qigong; it made an impression on his kung fu and great progress in his martial arts.
• Hong Qigong’s “Dog Beating Stick Technique” has nothing like it in the world, but he doesn’t use it casually; apart from this technique, he has many refined and ingenious rod stances and right now he was using them.
• "This 9-Fingered Divine Beggar, Elder Hong, goes about things in a truly mysterious manner. It's just like seeing the heavenly dragon's head but catching no hint of the tail."
• The beggar had a rectangular face with a hint of beard beneath his chin. All his four limbs were sturdy and bulky. Though his clothes were frayed and had obviously been patched in many places, it looked clean nevertheless. In his hand he held a green bamboo stick that was as bright and clear as jade, and on his back he carried a vermillion-red gourd.
• "Gluttony has always been a dumb habit of mine. When I think of food, I can forget everything else." Holding up his right hand that only had four fingers left, he said, "The ancient people spoke of the 'fidgety index finger', and they got it absolute right. Whenever I see or smell exquisite dishes and aromas, the index finger on my right hand would twitch non-stop. There was once where my gluttony ruined an important matter. In a fit of anger, I chopped off the finger..." An 'ah' escaped from Guo Jing. Sighing, Hong Qi-Gong said, "The finger might be chopped off, but my gluttonous nature still remains."
• "I'm hopeless at anything to do with books."
• Who would've guessed that underneath his gluttonous and silly guise, Hong Qi-Gong actually saw through her intentions all too well.
• "I'm lazy by nature so it is troublesome to be the leader of the beggars, but they couldn't find a suitable candidate, so I had to accept the responsibility."
• In over 35 years of training in the martial arts, Hong Qigong had learned a lot of diverse techniques.
• Hong Qigong's nose was able to smell food from a mile away.
• Hong Qigong suddenly said, "When I was young, my grandpa, my father and I were slaves of the Jins.

Huang Rong

• Yang Guo knew that it was the pair of eagles that belonged to the Guo couple. When he was younger, he had played with the eagles on Peach Blossom Island; since the eagles were here, the Guo couple would be nearby.
• Huang Rong was wearing a light purple silk gown, but because she was the Chief of the Beggar Clan, she could only tie the gown with pins in the places where it doesn’t catch the eye and that was it.
• Huang Rong’s eyebrows wrinkled, she was resentful. She and the Quanzhen sect weren’t the greatest of friends; years ago they used the “Big Dipper Formation” against her father.
• Yang Guo has always been assured of his intelligence but when he saw that Huang Rong predicted things like a god, he couldn’t stop himself from being startled and in awe of her.
• An intelligent and beautiful woman who was the daughter of Huang Yao Shi (黄药师, below), she succeeded Hong Qi Gong as the Leader of the Beggars' Clan (丐帮). She fell in love with Guo Jing at first sight and married him.
• Her martial arts included Huang Yao Shi's Jade Flute Swordplay and Fallen Hero's Palm as well as Hong Qi Gong's Dog-Beating Stick Techniques.
• Huang Yaoshi said, “She marries her ideal man and forgets about the suffering and bitterness of others? My precious daughter only listens to her husband, ha-ha, ‘obey the husband when married’, that really is something!”
• “Rong’er, you usually recognize main principles. As soon as it involves matters of our children you lose your judgment."
• Huang Rong gently turned her head, rowed the boat and started singing in a crystal clear voice.
• "I somehow regret spending so much time studying novels and practicing art and calligraphy. If I hadn't pestered my father to teach me such stuff as well as all sorts of other things such as the interesting ways of calculations, I would have devoted more time to practice my martial skills."
• Huang Rong, however, not only had a clear, crisp voice, but also a splendid turn of phrase; and when she got to the thrilling bits, her depictions scintillated with a hundred extra tones and colours.
• Since her childhood Huang Rong had been trained by her father in all kinds of mathematics. She looked at the symbols on the ground and immediately recognized it was an advance technique in mathematics called the ‘tian yuan zhi shu’ [sky primary technique]. Even though it looked complicated, it should not be too difficult to solve as long as one understood the principle.

Lu Youjiao

• Guo Fu said, “Over the last few years, my mother just held the title. The running of the clan is all done by Elder Lu Youjiao. All the many bothersome things that go on in the clan give my mother a headache. She said why is it necessary to have the name and not do anything; so why not pass the position on to Elder Lu and make it official. Once Elder Lu learns the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”, my mother will pass on the position to him officially.”
• However, Lu Youjiao wasn’t the most gifted and he was now old, his memory is fading, how could he remember all this in just a short time?
• Over the last ten years or so, Lu Youjiao had helped Huang Rong in running all the matters of the clan; he was just, he did things boldly and accepted the consequences, the members from the ‘dirty’ clothed and ‘clean’ clothed factions all respected him.
• “Are you referring to Chief Lu Youjiao? Although his martial arts are not that fantastic and he never accomplished much, but based on you saying he ‘kills the mighty enemy, serves the country and the people’, he can be counted as a great hero too.”
• The beggar’s voice cracked as he said this, he knew Lu Youjiao’s martial arts were not excellent, but he was responsible and caring and had earned the respect of the beggars.
• Huang Rong took a glance at Guo Jing. "Indeed!" she laughed. "You said it right!" They then tipped all their leftover food into the broken bowl. The beggar grabbed a few clumps of cold rice from inside a pocket and, along with the leftovers, began eating them up zestfully. Secretly, Huang Rong counted the number of pockets on him: there were three pockets to a cluster, and three clusters in total – in sum, nine pockets. Having another look at the three beggars around the other table, each of them was wearing nine pockets as well, but on their table was a lavish spread of food and drink. Those three acted as if they hadn't seen this one beggar, and all along had never so much as glanced at him; but at times, their expressions carried a faint look of disgust.
• "Big Brother Lu," said Huang Rong with a smile, "this name of yours really is interesting!" Lu Youjiao answered: "It's often said: 'A pauper without a stick gets harassed by the dogs.' I'm indeed without a stick, but what I do have is a pair of stinky feet. If a doggie comes to harass me, I take aim straight at the mongrel's head, and that son-of-a-bitch gets a foot like so! Then, it's off running to the wilds with its tail between its legs."
• If not for Lu Youjiao's hot temper, which spoiled several important business of the Clan, Hong Qigong would early on assign him to be his successor as the Clan Leader. In this general assembly in Yuezhou the Clean Clothes Faction was worried because speaking about morality, martial art and popularity, Lu Youjiao had eight, nine out of ten chance of being the candidate for the next Clan Leader.

Peng Zhang Lao

• This fat old beggar was precisely one of the four big elders of the Beggar Clan, Peng Zhang Lao [Elder Peng], who had earlier fallen in with the Mongols.
• Isn’t this Peng Zhang Lao always laughing and looking very friendly?
• Elder Peng had used his “Soul Absorbing Technique”, urging the monk in black to kill the thin beggar.
• Peng Zhanglao was one of the four Elders of the Beggar Clan; he was the peer of Lu Youjiao Zhanglao; second only to the Bangzhu [Clan Leader], Hong Qigong.